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Hey Canden!
I hope you had a great weekend!
I just sent you an email with details regarding your group. 🙂
Pura vida!
,Hey Tammy!
Thanks so much for your interest in our discounts, and also for your interest in our DIY Costa Rica project and Moon Costa Rica, our Costa Rica guidebook! 🙂
To start, we’re offering a promotion right now that awards free access to DIY Costa Rica to people who purchase Moon Costa Rica, so if you want (since you mentioned you’ve already purchased the book), you can email me a copy of your Moon Costa Rica purchase receipt (or send me a screenshot of your online Moon Costa Rica purchase) and I’d be happy to refund the payment you made for your membership to DIY Costa Rica. The best email to send your purchase receipt/screenshot to is: info@puravidaeh.ca
In regards to accessing the discounts available on our Pura Vida! eh? site, one quick question: Are you currently a Pura Vida! eh? member too? I checked our records of Pura Vida! eh? member accounts and didn’t see your name registered. I can see your name registered in our records of members of DIY Costa Rica (our sister site), though. To confirm, the two accounts are different: the DIY Costa Rica account provides access to all of the protected content on our DIY Costa Rica website, including our Costa Rica Destination Tool, whereas the Pura Vida! eh? account provides access to the checkout page on our Pura Vida! eh? website (this website you’re currently on) where you can submit an order for discounts. Since you mentioned you don’t have the info needed to log in to the Pura Vida! eh? website, I’m guessing this is because you aren’t yet a Pura Vida! eh? member. If this is the case, you can quickly become a Pura Vida! eh? member on this page on our website (https://puravidaeh.ca/membership-join/); you’ll register your Pura Vida! eh? account following the same process you did when you registered your DIY Costa Rica account (keep an eye on your junk mail folder as the registration email may end up there). Once you’re logged in to your Pura Vida! eh? account, you’ll be able to access the checkout page and discounts you’ve selected for your trip.
Pura vida! 🙂
,Hey Canden!
Great questions! We can certainly help. 🙂
To confirm, we are not tour operators, so we won’t be the people leading your selected tours. Whichever property you choose to go with will be the property that provides the tour guide(s). So, if you opt to visit Hacienda Guachipelin, you’ll have a tour guide from Hacienda Guachipelin, and if you opt to visit Vandara, you’ll have a tour guide from Vandara. Also to confirm, you’ll have a tour guide for activities that require a guide, but not for activities that don’t. So, if you opt to participate in a canopy zip-lining adventure or a horseback riding tour, for example, at either Hacienda Guachipelin or Vandara, you’ll have tour guides for these activities because it isn’t possible to go zip-lining or horseback riding without a guide. Both properties also have hot springs you can enjoy. You’re welcome to visit the hot springs at either property without a guide since the activity involves soaking in thermal-water pools and doesn’t require a guide’s assistance or supervision. So, to clarify, for any activities you’re considering experiencing at either Hacienda Guachipelin or Vandara that require a tour guide to run, a tour guide from that property will be provided to you (the cost of the guide is included in the cost of the activity). In contrast, for any activities that don’t require a tour guide to run, one won’t be provided to you.
In regards to the quality of both places, we’ve personally experienced both and enjoyed our visits to each, so I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with either one. There are some similarities across the two properties (both offer a canopy zip-lining tour, a horseback riding tour, hot springs, and a mud bath), but there are some notable differences, too. For one, Hacienda Guachipelin is located very close to the entrance to the Rincon de la Vieja National Park, so if you plan to visit the park, too, you can easily combine that experience with activities at Hacienda Guachipelin on the same day. It’s also worth noting that Hacienda Guachipelin is the larger operation and the property offers more adventure tours, like river tubing and canyoning, which Vandara doesn’t offer. So, if you’re interested in either of these two experiences, you’ll need to visit Hacienda Guachipelin. In contrast, Vandara is less well-known and therefore attracts fewer visitors, so if you’d rather visit a place that feels more off the beaten path, Vandara may be the better choice for your group.
Both properties provide day passes that combine a variety of tours/activities into one full-day experience. For your convenience, here are the links to our adult discounts for both properties’ day passes:
Hacienda Guachipelin’s One-Day Adventure Pass: https://puravidaeh.ca/discounts/one-day-adventure-pass-adult-rincon-de-la-vieja-hacienda-guachipelin/
Vandara’s Full Day Pass: https://puravidaeh.ca/discounts/vandara-full-day-pass-adult-rincon-de-la-vieja-vandara-hot-springs-and-adventures/
Both day passes include a canopy zip-lining tour, a horseback riding tour, access to the property’s own hot springs/mud bath, and lunch. At Hacienda Guachipelin, you’ll also get to experience a river tubing tour. At Vandara, you’ll get to experience a trapiche (sugarcane) tour.
Pura vida! 🙂
,Hello Ria!
Thanks so much for your interest in our Arenal Sky Trek, Sky Walk, and Sky Tram Combo discount! Sky Adventures, the tour operator, can provide transportation to/from the Volcano Lodge, but they’ll charge an additional fee ($17.00/person plus tax) to do so. (Sky Adventures is one tour operator in La Fortuna that does not automatically include round-trip transportation to/from any properties with any of their tours.) You’ll see the extra transportation charge noted as the “Transportation Option” on the tour’s listing page on our site (this page, if you’re looking at our adult discount: https://puravidaeh.ca/discounts/sky-trek-canopy-tour-ziplining-sky-walk-hanging-bridges-tour-sky-tram-aerial-tram-ride-adult-la-fortuna-sky-adventures/). If you’ll have a rental car and would prefer to drive yourselves to Sky Adventures’s Arenal Park, or if you would prefer to take a taxi or arrange other transportation between the park and Volcano Lodge, you certainly can. Sky Adventures’s transportation fee is entirely optional.
Pura vida! 🙂
,Hi Michele!
Thank you so much for considering us! 🙂
We don’t provide trip planning services in the traditional sense (we are not travel agents); the bulk of our time is spent writing about Costa Rica (publishing guidebooks, writing for our free travel blog, etc.). We’re actually in the business of helping travelers plan their own trips to Costa Rica, so if this is a task you decide to accomplish on your own, you’re welcome to use any or all of the resources we’ve created during your journey.
To start,
Our guidebook, Moon Costa Rica (https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Costa-Rica-Travel-Guide-dp-1640494928/dp/1640494928/), is a great resource that covers just about the entire country and every topic that pertains to Costa Rica trip planning.
Alternatively, and with more time to spend researching, you can visit our Costa Rica Travel Blog (https://costaricatravelblog.com) and sift through the many articles on there that can help you determine where to go, what to do, how to move around the country, etc.
Though our blog has hundreds of articles, the post “How To Plan A Trip To Costa Rica For Free” (https://costaricatravelblog.com/how-to-plan-a-trip-to-costa-rica/) is a great place to start.
Pura vida! 🙂
,Hi Gabrielle! 🙂
Great question! The answer depends on which exact tours you’re interested in experiencing. Each tour operator has their own policy in regards to whether or not they provide complimentary hotel pick-ups, and if they do, which hotels qualify for the service.
For Condovac La Costa, this property is located in the Playa Hermosa area of the Guanacaste province. It’s fairly popular, so the majority of Guanacaste-based tour operators should offer complimentary tour pick-up/drop-off services there, assuming they include transportation with their tours.
At the current time, we’re updating our discount database to reflect discounts for the new 2022 year, and we’re negotiating other new discounts. Several of our Playa Hermosa-based tours are currently being examined and therefore appear out of stock, so, unfortunately, we don’t have a ton of discounts we can offer to Playa Hermosa-area visitors right now. 🙁 Here’s a link to the page where we normally list our discounts for tours run to/from the Playa Hermosa area (https://puravidaeh.ca/product-category/destinations/playa-hermosa-tours/) so if you don’t plan to travel for a while, you can revisit the page closer to your trip to see which tour discounts we have available (to/from Playa Hermosa) at that time.
Pura vida!
,Hi Karine!
Thank you so much for letting us know! I can certainly help. 🙂
Quick question… is it access to this website (Pura Vida! eh? Inc.) or our sister website (DIY Costa Rica) that you’re wanting? I ask because I just checked the PayPal payments we recently received for access to this site (Pura Vida! eh? Inc.) and I don’t see any in your name. I do see a payment made recently for our sister site, DIY Costa Rica, though. To confirm, the two websites are different. The DIY Costa Rica account provides access to all of the protected content on our DIY Costa Rica website, including our Costa Rica Destination Tool. The Pura Vida! eh? account provides access to the checkout page on our Pura Vida! eh? website (this website) where you can submit an order for discounts.
Membership to Pura Vida! eh? Inc. is required to access the Pura Vida! eh? site, and membership to DIY Costa Rica is required to access the DIY Costa Rica site. (The memberships are different: you can have one or the other, or both.) Since you purchased access to DIY Costa Rica via the DIY Costa Rica website but left a comment for us on this Pura Vida! eh? website, I’m not sure which of the two sites you’d like to access. If it’s the DIY Costa Rica account that you’d like to access, I can send you a copy of the registration email that was previously sent to you for that site since you’ve already made the payment for DIY Costa Rica access (our registration emails have a tendency to end up in junk mail or trash folders). If it’s Pura Vida! eh? Inc. that you’d like to access instead, you can make a payment for that on this page on our website (https://puravidaeh.ca/membership-join/). Once you make that payment, you’ll automatically receive the registration link for the Pura Vida! eh? Inc. account, but if something happens that the registration email doesn’t come through, feel free to tell me so below and I can re-send it. 🙂
Pura vida!
,Hi Stephanie!
Thanks so much for checking in. I sent you two emails recently–within the last hour or two. Have you checked your junk mail or trash folder lately? The messages should be there! 🙂 These two particular emails that I sent most recently are the discount vouchers for your hot springs and trek/walk/tram combo. We’re currently waiting to hear back from the sailing tour operator but I’ll send you another update once this comes in.
Until soon! 🙂
,Hi Stuart!
This quick note is simply to check in with you to make sure you received our email about the park update. That email was sent a few hours ago, and you’re normally really quick to respond, so I just want to make sure you received it. Our emails (especially the ones where we include a link) have a tendency to end up in junk mail or trash folders, so in case that happened, I thought I’d give you a heads up about it. 🙂
Pura vida!
,Hey Stuart!
I’m so sorry for the confusing typo in my response above! I just finished emailing a different client about changing one of her tour dates, so that thought was in my mind. You’re absolutely correct: the message we left for Sky Adventures yesterday requested to change the park (not the date) from Monteverde to Arenal. Since the 10:00am tour time isn’t offered in Arenal, we requested the 10:30am tour time to keep it as close as possible to your preferred time, as per your request.
Pura vida! 🙂
,Hi Stuart!
Thanks so much for checking in about this! To confirm, we received your message about this yesterday and sent the tour operator a request right after to change the date. We just haven’t heard back from the tour operator yet, but as soon as they get back to us with the revised confirmation (assuming they respond to say that they have availability) we’ll send you another email. 🙂
Until soon!
,Hi Matt!
We do! We haven’t yet made that discount (and some others) visible on our website for the new year, which is why you wouldn’t have been able to find it in our discount database, but we do have it. I can make it visible on the site so you can place an order for it, but first, I should check: Have you already been in touch with the tour operator regarding the tour?
We’re not able to accept orders for discounts for tours for which there has already been communication between travelers and tour operators. This is out of respect for our tour operator partners; we work harmoniously with them and respect the general rule we have in the Costa Rica tourism industry that whichever company the traveler contacts first, the traveler will be considered that company’s client. Unfortunately, if contact with tour operators has already been made (even if you simply reached out to them with a question or to inquire about tour availability), when we go to send in the official requests for the tour(s) for your group, our discounts won’t be accepted.
For now, perhaps we’ll just wait to hear back from you, and if you haven’t been in touch with the tour operator, we can publicize the discount so you can place an order for it. 🙂
Until soon!
,Hey Rukhsar!
Thanks so much for getting back to me! If I had to guess, I’d say our Monteverde Extremo discount likely won’t be in stock before your trip.
For the horseback riding (assuming you mean the Paco’s Horses tour) and waterfall jumping tour discounts, these should continue to be in stock for a while.
Pura vida!
,Hello Rukhsar!
Thank you so much for your interest! 🙂
This is a tough question to answer! Our stock fluctuates according to several factors and can change daily, so it’s possible that the discounts may become available again. When do you plan to travel? Right now, more discounts than usual are marked as “out of stock” while we negotiate new discounts for the new year. Some of these “out of stock” discounts will change to “in stock,” and we have several new discounts to add to our database, but I’m not sure if these will be available before or after your trip. Feel free to let me know when you plan to travel and which discounts you’re currently considering, and I can let you know if it’s likely (or unlikely) they’ll be available when you need them.
Pura vida! 🙂
,Hey Indy!
Awe. 🙂 Thank you so much for your very kind comments! I’m glad you’ve found our resources to be helpful. I’m also glad you used our free Interbus discount! We don’t currently have a discount for Caribe Shuttle, but we’re working on one for the 2022 season. It’s unlikely it will be available by the end of January, though, which is when you plan to travel. If this changes, I’ll report back here and will also send you an email to let you know.
Pura vida! 🙂
